KTM 790 Duke

[Mick_J]

I got the chance to take out a KTM 790 duke yesterday so here are my thoughts of it.  Jumping off the Suzuki GSX 8s and onto the KTM the first thing I noticed was that the seat was very hard, it's also slightly higher.  The bars were also closer to me so the bike felt quite small and a bit strange to start with.  The controls were fairly conventional in lay out with a large 4 way selection pad on the left bar above the indicator switch which controls all the menu functions.  Being a demo bike KTM had everything enabled, (This can add up to £1000 to the purchase price) so there was fully controllable traction control, ABS, Slip control, power modes, quick shifter and probably some more stuff as well, everything was controlled through this switch.  The dash was the familiar TFT but with a basic b/w display.  When I turned the bike on the display looked spartan, just a rev counter which went up the left side and along the top with a speed indication and gear selected underneath.  Trips and fuel gauge and temp ran along the bottom, that's it.  By scrolling through the menu system the display can be changed.  The bike looked well built and looked good.
Pulling out of the car park I noticed the bike was a little lumpy, not as smooth as it could be and this sensation stayed with me the whole ride, it's not rough , just not smooth.  The quick shifter was also not very smooth at normal speeds with the gearbox feeling a little notchy but as this bike only had 140 miles on it this might smooth out with some use.  Out of town I found the bike to handled very well and gave good feedback and confidence in the twisties, well matched to the brakes which were also very good.  Pulling up from speed was very good.  The exhaust has a nice little bark to it which can be changed as tail can was replaceable, I think a neat little straight through would sound fantastic.  The engine is a willing thing with a good spread of torque across the rev range but the roll on was a little softer than the Suzuki but it did rev lower, much lower than the Ducati V4S. 
So how was it overall, well although the handling was good it always felt a bit edgy, (almost unstable) it's very, very flick-able which did not make for a relaxed ride, it's almost as if it wants to be ridden hard all the time.  There was also a feeling that I was just perched on top of the bike, not sitting in the bike and this added to the flighty nature.  For a short thrash on some twisty roads I'm sure this would be a very exciting bike to ride but as an every day bike I don't think is the best choice of small twin.  The display comes up with the slogan "ready to race" when you first switch on and I think that sums the bike up nicely.